Fences

Fences (2016)

93% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 194 reviews)

Runtime: 139 minutes

Directed by: Denzel Washington

Starring: Denzel, Viola Davis, Stephen McKinley Davis, Jovan Adepo, Russell Hornsby

From: Paramount

I saw this film on Saturday in a movie marathon on the big screen, which was nice. The big crowd I was with seemed to enjoy it, audibly reacting to some big moments. Despite it seeming like a long movie at times and some iffy moments-not to mention an ending best described as “curious”-overall I can say I enjoyed this melodrama movie set in 1950's Pittsburgh.

It centered on the African-American Maxson family, where the patriarch is Troy (Denzel Washington), a former ballplayer in the Negro Leagues who was too old by the time Major League Baseball allowed black players to play and thus he had to become a garbageman, the matriarch is Rose (Viola Davis) and there's 17 year old Cory (Jovan Adepo). Cory has an older half-brother named Lyons (Russell Hornsby) who occasionally drops by. There's also Gabriel, Troy's brother who happens to be mentally handicapped after a traumatic event; thankfully the character wasn't as “Simple Jack” as he could have been. Finally, Troy has his pal Bono (Stephen McKinley Henderson), who sometimes stops by to hang out.

1950's Pittsburgh looks both nice and authentic, although most of the action is focused on the inside and outside of the house. This is definitely a movie filled with dialogue and its stage origins are obvious. That was fine to me here as the story was compelling and there are some tremendous performances and some great scenes. I was not familiar with the play this was based on (written by the late August Wilson) but I know it was on Broadway previously, and both Washington and Davis played those roles on stage and won Tony Awards for their performances. They may both win Oscars for their performances captured here, and I wouldn't complain about either as both are aces in their roles as they played complex characters, especially on Denzel's part. At first Troy seems gregarious but as things progress... you see he is haunted by his past and is obsessed with both The Grim Reaper and baseball. I'll leave it at that.

The cast as a whole does a nice job overall. You only see a handful of people throughout, aside from little kids playing baseball in the street a few times to start off a scene. I hadn't seen Adepo before and in a difficult role he was successful. So was Henderson, who was also new to me and despite a role not as challenging he also knocked it out of the park. It was amusing seeing him in this film, as I had seen Manchester by the Sea right before this and in that film he only appears in a scene that lasts about 90 seconds long and that was it. Here his role was more substantial so I was able to see his talents.


I understand those who didn't care for the movie, as there are legitimate complaints to be made. Yet, I was glad I saw this as it worked for me overall.